


Awakening

by isthisagoodname



Category: Warframe
Genre: Angst and some self-harm, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Huge spoilers? More or less Post-Sacrifice, It turns out okay at the end though, Look it's Valkyr this won't be a happy story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-25 06:25:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19740067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isthisagoodname/pseuds/isthisagoodname
Summary: Just what are the consequences of the gifts that Nora Night has been offering?





	Awakening

“What do you think, Corv?”

The lavender-hued shape of the Cephalon appeared next to the comm relay. She hummed quietly and bubbled a cheery response. "I will do whatever action you wish, Operator!"

Kyre rolled his eyes and sighed. "But I want your input, Corval. I'm not sure about this." He read over the message again. It was short and cryptic.

_A gift, dreamer. To one that wishes to awaken full potential._

_~NN_

Attached to the message was a set of coordinates that seemed to point to the middle of nowhere; a good three days burn from the orbit of Saturn out into deep space. 

Well, he knew who the sender was; that had to be none other than Nora Night. So, he asked again. "Do you think we should go?"

The cephalon twirled a little in place before responding. "No."

Kyre smiled, happy to see his ship having enough confidence to profess a solid opinion. "That's alright, but I'm curious. Why not?" 

Her shape flickered and surged reddish pink a few times as she spoke. "Night is a smooth talker ** _-**too smooth**._** She knows too much and reveals too little. I feel as though she could be ** _-**up to something**-_** a potential threat."

Kyre pouted and ran a hand through his hair. Corval must be really worried if she was glitching to that extent, or maybe she was just being paranoid again. "But what if she isn't? What if she is just trying to help?"

"What if it's an ambush? Or a **_-**BETRAYAL**-_ **m-mixup? What if that message was for somebody else?" 

Kyre laughed. "C'mon Corv, how often do you get messages on _accident?_ " 

The shape of the cephalon shrunk a little in embarrassment. "Rarely…"

"Tell you what, let's at least take a look. We'll try some more games on the trip!" 

She bubbled right back into her normal shape. "Absolutely! I am plotting the course now. Which first, komi or cards?"

* * *

The coordinates directed them to a mere box, just a small container drifting in deep space. They almost didn't find it; something that small and so far away from anything was like trying to find a single grain of dust in an ocean. There was no way that anybody would have been able to locate it without the coordinates.

Kyre sat crosslegged by the intake port, staring at the plain container that Corval took aboard and debating his next course of action. She may be prone to moments of paranoia, but he himself felt incredibly nervous about this package. Why would somebody go to such lengths for a little gift delivery? The flickering cephalon's wild speculations weren't helping much. "What if it's a **_**BOMB?!**_ ** Or a fat ugly maggot! A box full of blood! Oh, no, wait, what if it's ****** **_EMPTY!!**_ **"

Kyre rubbed at his temples. He was trying to think, and this wasn't helping at all. Eventually he decided that enough was enough, and he reached over to pop open the damn thing. The interior revealed itself to contain nothing more than a forma. "There, see?"

The cephalon stuttered and blinked erratically. _"**Oh no, oh no no, you should space that…**"_

"What? It's just a forma."

"No it's not! Look at it!"

He shook his head and pulled it out of the (rather tasteful, he thought) box. It certainly looked like a forma, albeit slightly different from a standard one. The color was off, and it had some strange curves to it. "So, it's a weird forma."

 _"**Umbral!**"_ she whispered, as though afraid to even speak the word. Kyre's eyes went wide and he dropped the thing in surprise. "R-really?"

He had heard rumors of such things, but only just rumors. There were stories passed around on the relays and regional chats of warframes and weapons of immense power. They were myths, as far as he had been concerned; fanciful stories of frames that simply couldn't take damage, beings that could destroy an entire ship without effort, tales of shadowy monsters with limitless power and magical blades forged in void. Stories, though, they were all just stories. Nobody he heard one from could verify; they were always things that somebody heard somebody else speak about to someone somewhere that one time or other. In his mind, Umbral things were just stories that the Tenno spun to try and impress or frighten one another. 

Except, he had one such thing sitting here, in a little bitty box, in the middle of nowhere. "What… what does it do?"

"I don't know! It's a forma but it's umbral and that's all I know and I don't know how I even know that!" The cephalon seemed flustered, aggravated at her own confusion. "I am sorry operator. I cannot find any other information about it, but a significant part of me feels as though it is ****** **_dangerous_ ** **.**"**

Kyre mused over it, over her worries and the situation at whole. "Maybe it is. And maybe Nora gave it to us because she trusts us with it." 

Corval flickered and sat silent for a long moment. Eventually she responded again, cold and emotionless. "...as you will, Operator."

* * *

Well, Kyre knew what he would use it on. It was no secret that he had a favorite warframe. She was a strange one, ripped free from the old Corpus labs hidden in the clouds of Jupiter, twisted and skinned and bearing terrible scars. By very rough designation his cephalon was able to identify her as Valkyr. 

He didn't know what specifically had happened before he found her, but the scars and appearance told more than enough. Even so, he liked her, liked _being_ her. She was graceful despite it all and incredibly tough. The only major modification he made was a new helmet; one that he felt better suited her pantherine grace. Enemies were afraid of her - of him - on missions, and he found great satisfaction in employing her considerable strength. 

And, well, it was just _fun_. He had encountered a few other Tenno who's warframes had a voice, but only a few as energetic as hers. Together he and she would stalk and howl through dying corridors, tear every trouble asunder and stop only when there was nothing more to rend. 

Or, when he had pushed past his and hers limits, become overwhelmed and too drained from the fury to continue. Then they'd fall, and he would have to endure another round of Corval panicking and worrying over him. That was why he was investing so heavily in this warframe; he had upgraded her reactors and already utilized several forma already. And, well… he stretched with her limbs and flexed her hands, growling briefly as the faint flickers of claws flared from the fingertips. It felt _right_ , with every movement and action happening effortlessly, beautifully. He was fully attuned to her again at this point, which meant that he was ready to go and ruin it all over again with another forma.

He and she strode up to the armory where he had stored the umbral thing, enjoying the way her claws clicked with every stride. He was nervous, but reassured himself that this would be fine. He had used forma countless times; surely this would be no different. He picked it up, held it to his - no, her - chest, and felt as it shifted and melted into her form.

It felt _strange_ . Using a forma as always odd; it left things feeling off in a way that was hard to describe, and it always took time to get used to them again. But this felt worse than that, somehow, not just different but _wrong._ He stumbled away from the armory, made a few shuffling steps and fell to the floor.

"Operator? Are you alright?"

His embodied hands shook. No, this wasn't alright. Something felt wrong, terribly wrong, as though something was trying to strangle him from the inside. He felt stiff, sluggish, like he couldn't move, couldn't breathe or see or think through the thick sludge that seemed to have filled his being. He was drowning in this, clawing desperately for air as he choked and spluttered and screamed in panic. 

"OPERATOR!"

He clutched his head, keened and failed to quell the screaming static in his mind. 

He had to get rid of this. With a howl he clawed at his throat, then suddenly found himself sprawled out on the floor, in his own body as something raked its claws into his chest and snapped him back to the seat of his transference chair. 

He coughed and spat, reflexively swinging out and bruising his knuckles against the inside of his pod. Dying _hurt_ , particularly when it was so unexpected, and he had absolutely no idea what in the void was even going on.

Neither did his cephalon, it seemed. She warbled erratically, sounding increasingly frazzled. "Operator! What are you doing?! Can you hear me?"

Kyre was too dazed to respond, only barely managing to stumble out of the transference pod. What the hell was happening? Why couldn't he stop shaking?

He heard a crash and a yelp from Corval. "T-that-hurts-please-stop … o-operator! C-cut the link…"

Kyre shouted and banged on the door to the transference room. "I'm not even in it! Corv, what is going on?!" 

The door gave way to expose the small hallway beyond, now worryingly smoke-tinged. He coughed at the harsh air and tried to regain his bearings. 

Kyre shook his head and made his way down the hall, tracing a hand along the wall to keep his bearing. His hand caught on something new and he froze. A deep gash was torn into the wall, leaking blood and coolant. "C-corv? Are you alright?" 

"Operator, you're there? But you were in the quarters!"

He peered down the hall in that direction, seeing more intermittent gouges in the metal that lead up to the door to his personal quarters. It should have been closed, but instead was torn apart. One half of it stuttered in the frame, partially ripped out of its mooring, and the other was peeled away, only a mangled bit of scrap in the hall. "Fuck…"

Corv tittered in, sounding giddy, on the verge of her own panic. "I think your warframe is malfunctioning!" 

"No shit! Is she in there?"

"Y-yes."

* * *

The warframe was there alright, pacing and huffing loudly. She didn't seem to notice him, too lost in a confused haze that left her snarling and frothing at the mouth (wait, she had a mouth? He never knew). There was a lot of blood, some of it across the wall and floors and running down her arms. The warframe gave agitated whines as she scratched at the boxy manacles around her wrists and tore at the rivets holding her together, leaving deep gouges on the muscle. It was more than clear that she was in a bad state, biting harshly at her own arm as she keened and tried desperately to remove the stitching and objects embedded within it.

He didn't know what to do. He approached cautiously, feeling very much afraid and worried. Despite his attempt at stealth (damn it, he forgot he could shift into the void) he caught her attention. She jumped back into a corner and growled as a brief flash of angry claws flared from her fingertips. They didn't linger though, and he didn't approach any closer. "I'm not going to hurt you."

No answer. He took a step, extending a hand towards her, and was met with a threatening growl. She was hunched over, crouching and wedged into the corner. Trying to be small. Trying to be hidden.

He pulled his arm back, a little surprised at the recession. _She was scared of him._

"I'm just going to sit here, okay?" He walked in a wide arc, keeping plenty of space as he made his way to the window and his preferred spot. He took a standard seiza position, tried his best to keep hits breathing steady, and looked out into the calm emptiness of deep space. This would take time, but he had all the time in the world.

That seemed to be tolerated well enough, didn't result in any frightful sounds. After a short while he heard a few noises of shifting and metal on metal, and he turned just enough to see that she had moved to sit down curled up in her corner. But for breathing and picking at her wrist, there didn't seem to be anything else from her at the moment. She was staring off at nothing in particular it seemed, but reacted when he raised a hand; she was watching him from the edge of her vision.

He sighed quietly and returned to his previous pose, trying to relax after whatever the hell this incident was. Corv briefly flickered in across his visor and he shook his head slowly. "Corv, turn off all communications. I don't care what messages come in right now."

Eventually he tried communicating, mostly just speaking to himself out loud. She was scratching idly at a vicious scar across her sternum, one worse and more fresh than any of the others. Unlike those old ones, he knew this one's source. "Do you remember how you got that?"

She didn't respond. He gave a sad smile; it was a strong memory for him. The Stalker, Hunhow, waking up for the second time, watching as that great and vicious blade ran through his false old body. He shook his head at the recollected thought. "I was so confused and scared…"

His throat felt dry. To be honest, that moment in the armory was a very similar feeling to what he experienced then, feeling lost in a sea of bewildered panic and confusion and terror. Other Tenno had their own stories of how they woke up; some more dramatic than most, but the Stalker seemed to have a hand in all of them. Everyone bore some kind of scar from it. 

He heard her shifting again, but held himself still rather than turn to look. This was the first movement out of her in hour and he didn't want to frighten her again. That made it all the more surprising to him when he felt a tense hand on his shoulder. He nearly jumped, and was glad he didn't. 

Carefully, she slid her hand across his back and under his arm, then tugged him over into a soft one-sided hug. Her other arm hooked under his legs and pulled him into her lap. He huffed a quiet laugh; this felt familiar. "You do remember." 

She nodded slowly. He didn't quite know how to react; he didn't want to try to conduct a somatic link for fear of causing another reaction, but could feel some faint crosstalk just from the contact. It felt like his nerves were amplified and reflected back, making his hands twitch a little. For lack of a better idea he took a deep breath and just spoke his mind out loud.

"You carried me." He remembered it; how strange and detached it felt, dragging through the mud of confusion and broken transference to carry his own fragile body back to the lander. He heard a soft hum and the hug squeezed tighter. He felt the thoughts from her, remembered how light he felt, the echoed confusions. She had the memory of it too.

He smiled. "You're strong, the strongest person I know." That earned a different reaction than he expected; she tensed up as her breath caught. A faint thought whispered its way through the link. _Not strong enough._

He floated bewilderment as she hugged him tightly. He remembered being held down, straining his limbs as he pulled desperately at choking bonds and shackles, feeling muscles tear from the strain but still being unable to budge them. 

This wasn't his memory. 

* * *

It was murky, only faint and half-remembered. The parts of it were disconnected, little flashes of moments and sensations. She didn't remember everything, or even most of it, but what she did was enough: fighting terribly for control, feeling her own body twist and lurch and stumble, feel the pain from when things didn't work. Did she have a mind before? Was there a lost operator, one that dreamed of this nightmare with her? She didn't know, it was all long before anyone had awakened. There was only the bits and scraps of memory; that ugly laughing worm, the collar and the pain.

She wasn't a Corpus proxy, despite Alad V's goals. It didn't matter what he tried. Simple torture did nothing but scar. He ripped her open and tried to add his own motors and controls, and she would simply tear them all out. The closest he got was with the kuva, but even as collar flooded her mind with his ugly voice and the red haze fogged her vision she managed to howl loud enough to drown him out. She was Tenno, damn it, and that meant that she listened to none but the guidance of their Lotus. She was told to fight, survive, withstand, and she would. She had to.

She did.

And so the project changed. If she would not be his machine of destruction, then he would create one himself; it wouldn't matter how hard she fought or how much she struggled. Bit by bit she was taken apart, left only lucid and alive long enough to witness the twitching animal thing he sewed together from her flesh, felt as what was stolen from her lurched under his control. She wasn't strong enough to stop it.

* * *

Kyre whimpered as he felt the claws flare and press against his suit. The memory left him merely reeling, but had sent her into a new agitation, growling even as she cradled him. He felt _very_ frightened, not just at the risk of new disembowelment but the creeping panic and helplessness of the situation. Quite simply, he was afraid of being hurt again. His feelings seemed to make her upset; evidently his mind echoed over into hers as well, and her reaction to this sort of feeling was with anger. 

He yelped when she shifted and crushed him into a bear hug. It wasn't hurting him, but the fiery claws and sheer strength still shocked him. His transferred fear echoed and she growled. She was strong, _strongest he knew_. He heard her through the blinding anger, one thought that howled louder than any other. She wasn't going to let herself be hurt, not again. He felt oddly reassured by that. 

"V-val?" It was difficult to find his voice, and trying to think of how to address her seemed awkward at the moment. She didn't recognize the name, and only faintly registered the intent of his voice through the link and the haze. It was so confusing; this voice was her, but it was not. It was hesitant, anticipated pain, but she did not want it to be hurt. Gradually, carefully, she let go of him and looked down at those odd watery brown eyes. They were hers, surely? But they were so small and soft and fragile, and stared back at her in such frightened confusion. 

"You're not going to hurt me." Kyre wasn't sure if he was asking or telling her that, but he felt that it was true either way. She hummed in quiet acknowledgment, agreeing to it. Gently, Kyre reached out to place his hands on her wrists. He didn't hold, only covered them. "You don't want to be hurt, but you're hurting yourself…" The warframe looked down at the blood along her arms and scratches around the stitching and staples. She whined a little; those things in her arms weren't originally a part of her, but they were now holding her together. They felt wrong and restraining, reminding her of … that. He covered the scratches with his hands. "It's okay. It won't happen again."

Kyre felt her hands around his wrists as she leaned forward and rested her forehead on his. He strangely electric, angry but cold at once, both familiar and distant; she had initiated the transference link. It was a strange sensation, as though he was out of place for a moment, like it was fogged from magnetic interference - he not quite in control, but not in a distressing manner. It was okay. _They_ were okay. He smiled and voiced their shared thought. 

"We won't let it."


End file.
